F1 2024 - Round 9 - Montreal Canada

Albons overtake was unreal

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RVd1mnbCTU4

The question as always is, how bad is the redbull - is it Verstappen's brilliance bringing a 2nd or 3rd best car to the fore, or is Perez that bad in the best car. Personally, watching the race, I think it's more the former than the latter.

But the fact remains… Redbull would have been better off entering only Max for the last 2 races, due to 2 DNF and associated costs towards the cap from Perez. Would Gasly/Ricciardo/AN Other have had those accidents?

Very enjoyable race.

I used to think he was alright. But been a grade A d!ckhead all year.

Along with him, that clown Lazenby and a few others, they have a serious disdain/dislike for Redbull.

It's refreshing when Rosberg is there, and actually Villenueve was also refreshingly frank and honest.

To my surprise, and it is a big surprise, Damon has not been shy about heaping praise to Max this year. So credit where it's due

Villeneuve came across as a total prick I thought. I enjoyed seeing Fred Vasseur shut him up.

You forgot Alex Albon. I think he is future champion material.

It's going to be a very boring race I would say. Madness having Barcelona after Canada. It should be after Monaco or vis a versa so the two most boring races in the calender can be done with together over a week one after the other.

You must not have been watching F1 for very long as every season from 2014 to 2020 had a more dominant car than that.

It’s worth looking at actual flying lap times, there were times last year when the gap from 1st to 20th was smaller than the typical gap from Mercedes to the second fastest car over the entire hybrid era. This is why Perez can end up in 16th by being half a second off Max but Bottas could be nearly a second off the pace his car was capable of and still get on the front row.

The fact that they’ve had better results is a testament to far fewer driver errors, far better strategy and pit stops, and not being up against more talented drivers in other teams.

Then you have the drivers i wouldn't trust to take my Audi around the block - Logan, Stroll, Magnussen, Zhao

I really would not bunch Magnussen in with Logan, Stroll or Zhoe at all.

I think Magnussen is better than any of them 3 drivers. Just look at his drive through the wet in Sundays Canadian race. He is a good hard racer and F1 needs more of that.

The safety car in it's own right would be a rocket, but in comparison to an F1 car it would look like a clapped out Lada.

What the TV coverage will never do is show the appreciable acceleration and speed on an F1 car. It's mind boggling seeing it Live.

"Hard to judge Merc since Russell arrived, as the car has been rubbish." - this is not true. Over the last three years they have been on average the 2nd or 3rd fastest car in the field, and have had the fastest car at some tracks, with Russell scoring poles and a win. If you think having merely the 2nd best car in the field negates any impact a driver can make then god help anyone driving for the likes of Alpine or Aston Martin, or anyone driving for any team other than Merc between 2014 and 2020.

"Red Bull, as they will never have two drivers close to each other in talent, with equal status, allowed to race for a championship." - this is also untrue. Vettel and Webber raced each other for the championship with equal treatment. Mark Webber was even ahead of Vettel going into the season finale in 2010 but Seb ultimately came out on top. People always come back to "multi 21" as some kind of retort to this even though that was an order in favour of Mark and against Seb, and was driven entirely by a desire to get the cars safely home without taking extra risks at that precise moment, rather than anything to do with the title. Something teams do all the time, and something drivers have been known to ignore at times too, without it ever being blown up in the same way with excessive media gaslighting. (funny coincidence, in that exact same Malaysian GP, Rosberg was faster than Lewis but Mercedes used team orders to keep Hamilton ahead and put him on the podium, but nobody remembers this)

As for more recently with Verstappen. He and Ricciardo had completely equal treatment but Daniel chose to leave the team as Max started to get the better of him as he matured from his early teenage mistakes. With Ricciardo gone they tried Gasly and tried Albon and neither of them could get close to Max, so they searched for the best driver available on the grid, which was Perez, who was riding high from massively outperforming his car at Racing Point and even securing an unlikely win on merit. Perez has gotten closer than anyone, and they've kept him on short term contracts to see who's available but there have simply been no better options to date.

They tried bringing Ricciardo back into the fold to see if they could get the best out of him and bring him back to the top team but he hasn't been up to scratch. They've frequently shown interest in Norris but he chose to commit to McLaren. Leclerc also has long term commitments and realistically I don't think there's anyone else on the grid who'd get materially closer to Max than Checo - look at how Albon was much further off Max's pace than Perez at Red Bull yet he's rated as one of the better drivers on the grid these days now he's not judged against that benchmark.

It's a stark contrast to Mercedes who purposely put the most compliant driver they could find alongside Lewis in Bottas. Toto Wolff openly admitted this was a deliberate choice not to repeat the situation with Rosberg, because they didn't want anyone to compete with Hamilton.

Ah come on? Seriously… You must be joking if you think that sounds broken.

Have you ever been to Mondello, or any other race track to watch a race? Any kind of series?

I'm sorry, but if you think that AM sounds broken, your knowledge is somewhat limited

Not broken but it does sound kinda **** on that mic as it seems very sharp and not throaty at all.

That wouldn't be the reality.

You said that AM sounded broken 🤣

650/700 odd BHP, Top speed of i think close to 200 MPH ( I think it's a DBX)

Heaven help us all if you think that sounded broken

Safety car sounds v8 to me. Car in Clarkson review is a v12 but ya with a proper external mic, the Safety car will sound unreal